A quaint custom from Edin-BRO, Scotchland.

[Guy Profumo]

Perusing the delights of the Royal Mile t'other day, I was witness to this phenomenon of spitting on the "Heart of Midlothian" outside the kirk on the road down from the castle.

Can any of our Caledonian brethren enlighten me on this?

Is it a relic of an old pagan custom appealing to the local gods for good luck?

(or is it, as I suspect, ignorant Hibees neds venting their anger against their cross-burg rivals?)

[Deus Ex Machina]

A quaint custom from Edin-BRO, Scotchland.

Its horrible isn't it?

I witnessed it myself once. Two gentlemen were walking over the heart and one of them promptly spat on it. The other gent looked horrified and said 'thats our team!!'. The spitting fellow went to explain himself but I don't remember what he said.

Which is quite crucial to this discussion.

[blameless]

A quaint custom from Edin-BRO, Scotchland.

The heart marks the spot where gibbet used to be for hanging people, in the days when public executions were still the norm. Spitting on it is considered good luck (don't ask me why, those Embra folk are odd).

ps: Edin-BURG, shurely?

[Guy Profumo]

A quaint custom from Edin-BRO, Scotchland.

So I was wrong.

(I'd assumed from the venom and ire with which it was done, it was the former, and promptly informed the nice American couples who witnessed it that it was the latter.)

[blameless]

A quaint custom from Edin-BRO, Scotchland.

Football might have something to do with it nowadays, but the pavement mosaic HoM pre-dates the football club by about sixty years.

[Mr Beast]

A quaint custom from Edin-BRO, Scotchland.

On Billy Connolly's World Tour Of Scotland I think he says it's the site of the old Scottish Parliament. He says a spit at Parliament is no bad thing.

On my last visit to Embra Master Beast and Beast Minor were quite taken with the custom.

[AMMS]

A quaint custom from Edin-BRO, Scotchland.

I was once spat at by a fan of Heart of Midlothian if that helps even things up.

[Gerontophile]

A quaint custom from Edin-BRO, Scotchland.

not really... I hope you punched him.

[ursus arctos]

A quaint custom from Edin-BRO, Scotchland.

In the unlikely event that anyone cares, the Milanese equivalent of this is grinding one's heel into the private parts of the bull who features on the mosaic crest of the city of Torino that forms part of the floor of the rotunda of the Galleria.



The practice is now pretty much exclusively reserved for Japanese, Chinese and American tourists, who seem to find it hillarious to spin around while standing on a mosaic bull's testicles.

[Guest]

A quaint custom from Edin-BRO, Scotchland.

AMMS wrote:

I was once spat at by a fan of Heart of Midlothian if that helps even things up.

I was once spat at by a Hibs fan. It's obviously a big thing in Edinburgh.